As many as 52% of Canadian business executives say it isn’t worth it for niche businesses to pay for in-house expertise anymore, notes a study by accounting and business advisory firm, Richter.
In fact, outsourcing specialized expertise has become a growing trend.
“This specialized knowledge outsourcing will be a key strategy to drive business growth in the foreseeable future,” says Mitch Silverstein, partner at Richter in Toronto.
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The problem remains the difficulty in recruiting top talent. Of those polled 71% executives say they had to increase salary ranges in order to attract top employees.
Another 39% say they do invest in employees while 39% say they focus on investing in product and technology development.
This entrepreneurial enthusiasm could be getting out of hand.
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“While that spirit is fantastic for fresh idea generation and innovation, some business executives are feeling run over by a young labour force who wants to learn everything it can within a couple of years, and then jump ship for a bigger salary,” says Silverstein.
Further, 41% of the executives say they have a personal contact who has quit a position in order to pursue entrepreneurial goals. This creates a huge problem for businesses attempting to retain the talent they have already hired.
“We are most definitely seeing an entrepreneurial psychology taking over both the youngest and oldest generations in today’s workforce,” says Silverstein, calling them ‘greypreneurs’ or ‘solopreneurs.’
With employees exiting the building in all directions, executives are instead choosing to acquire the relevant niche expertise they need on their own.